Bangkok to Bagan

After leaving school we spent some time in Bangkok sorting out our visa for Myanmar. As we’ve already spent quite a bit of time in Bangkok, we didn’t have a big list of things we wanted to see/do. So it was the perfect time to do some more couchsurfing – we stayed with a lovely German couple who are studying in Bangkok. They live in an amazing apartment complete with two swimming pools, a gym and a movie theatre. This was certainly the first time we’ve been swimming on the 44th floor of a building before! They took us out to their local sushi restaurant – it’s so good that they come three times a week.

We headed from Bangkok to Mandalay and caught a river boat the next morning to Bagan. The boat was nice and relaxing, but the scenery along the banks of the Irawaddy was a bit desolate. What was interesting was navigating the river in dry season. The captain zigzagged slowly around invisible sand banks and many ships had crew members leaning over the side with poles to measure the river depth.

Bagan is the place to go if you want to see pagodas. There used to be over 4,000 pagodas here, but now there are just a mere 2,200! They are impressive, but it turns out that our capacity for enjoying endless pagodas is limited! Still, we had a fun day cycling round with a friendly German guy we met on the boat. Here is a selection of our pagoda photos:

Another day we visited the nearby Mount Popa, a sacred site for Nat (spirit) worship. While Mount Popa itself wasn’t particularly riveting, the drive there and back was interesting. In the most remote parts it felt like the wild west with people standing waiting by the road and ox-drawn carts hauling barrels.

On the way back we stopped in at a small village for a drink and found a group of men playing a game of carrom (which is like a cross between air hockey and pool).

Written by Craig Drayton and Sally Robertson